The Chair welcomed everyone to
the first meeting of the Adult Services and Health Scrutiny Panel
of the new municipal year.

She welcomed new members
Councillor Jo Burton and Councillor Brian Steele, who was the new
Vice-Chair. She wished to place on
record her thanks to Councillor Colin Barron, who had previously
held the position of Vice-Chair for his contribution to the Panel,
together with thanks to Councillor Darren Hughes who was no longer
a member of the panel for his past contribution to the work of the
Panel.

2.

Declarations of Interest.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest
were made at the meeting.

3.

Questions from members of the public and the press.

Minutes:

There were no members of the
public and press present.

4.

Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care - Priorities for the Coming Year

Minutes:

Councillor Doyle, Cabinet
Member for Health and Social Care gave a presentation in respect of
the Service priorities for 2010/11 and beyond.

The presentation drew specific
attention to:-

Adult Social Care
– Performance

Major
Achievements

Customer
Achievements

The Year
Ahead

Significant
Challenges

The New Government
– New Challenges

A question and answer session
ensued and the following issues were raised:-

A request was made
for an explanation to be given of the meaning of personalisation
and how it worked in practice. It was
confirmed that service users were now given choice and control over
their care packages. They would be
given a choice of how their need could be met and the funding to
control who they received the service from.

Reference was made to
a service which was provided in Sheffield in respect of palliative
care in the home for people who were coming to the end of their
life. It was suggested that this would
be good practice for Rotherham

Reference was made to
the Emergency Care Scheme which had recently been
introduced. A member reported that he
had recently joined the scheme as a carer, because it gave peace of
mind that his wife would be cared for should anything happen to
him. He thought it was an excellent scheme.

A question and answer session
ensued and the following issues were raised:-

Reference was made to
the £2m in reserve and a question was raised as to whether
some of this would be used towards the purchase of a new
scanner. It was confirmed that the
money would be used for a variety of things, but it was not clear
whether the scanner would be one of those. Andy Buck agreed to check the position in respect
of this.

The presentation
highlighted that there was a £2.4m saving expected in respect
of management. Concerns were raised as
to how this would work in practice and whether it would affect
services provided. It was confirmed
that when this was first announced there was a freeze on
recruitment, whilst awaiting the result of the
election. It was now anticipated that
work would be undertaken to restructure the current management set
up. However as management were not
responsible for the provision of services it was not felt that this
would have any major impact.

Reference was made to
the £19.4m savings in respect of the Strategic Investment
Fund balance and it was queried as to whether this money was
earmarked for anything. It was
confirmed that the money would be drawn down over the next 3-4
years.

Reference was made to
GP contracts and how these were negotiated. It was confirmed that these were negotiated
nationally and would be subject to re-negotiation. All surgeries in Rotherham open their core hours
with the out of hours service being provided by Care
UK.

Concerns were raised
about the potential for a budget deficit and what steps would be
taken to reduce this risk. Andy Buck
confirmed that steps were being taken to identify conditions early
and therefore reach solutions early which would have a positive
impact on the budget and reduce costs to the NHS.

A discussion took
place around the cost of prescriptions and Members raised concerns
about the number of people who received medication, particularly on
repeat prescriptions, which they didn’t really
need. A query was raised as to whether
the issue of prescription drugs was monitored in any
way. Confirmation was given that some
pharmacists do probe as to whether it is necessary for a patient to
receive their medication on the prescription every
time. More pharmacists were being urged
to take this approach.